Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.


Apple has marked its day-old The Parent Presentation video on YouTube as private, meaning that it is no longer available to watch.

The-Parent-Presentation-Apple-Ad-Thumbnail.jpg

Apple has also moved The Parent Presentation to the bottom of its College Students page, effectively burying it. When we reported on the marketing campaign yesterday, the presentation was prominently featured at the top of the page.

It is unclear why Apple is suddenly hiding the ad, or if it will return. Apple did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

On social media, some people said that the ad was cringe or gross, so perhaps Apple pulled the video due to overly negative reception. To be clear, this is merely speculation, and there were others who found humor in the video.

Teenagers can be a tough crowd to impress.

It would not be the first time that Apple pulled ads from YouTube that did not go over well, or became the subject of a class action lawsuit.

Why-Mac.jpeg

The Parent Presentation is a customizable slideshow that explains why a Mac is a useful tool in college. The presentation is available to download for free in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides formats. Students can customize the presentation slides, and then show it to their parents to convince them to buy them a Mac.

In an accompanying YouTube video shared by Apple, comedian Martin Herlihy showed a group of high school students how to effectively use The Parent Presentation.

It is that video that is now hidden.

Article Link: Apple Pulls 'Convince Your Parents to Get You a Mac' Ad From YouTube
I'm 18 so practically Gen Z. If this funny ad got pulled cause of damn teenagers then they clearly have no sense of humor. I really liked this and was actually going to make the presentation. Teens are also making fun of WWDC on tiktok where talking about the "Call screening" and at a point the guy says "The phone rings" making fun of dude because there hoping it would like it wouldn't. Teens in this day of age just trying to find something to make them laugh. Guess apple is one for them apparently.
 
Don’t make generalisations, it bores me to death. That’s what my gen z self is SENSITIVE to. I have reveeerrreedddd Joan Rivers, Bianca Del Rio since a teenager and lately I’m getting into Kathy Griffin too.
Well played....this is hilarious!
 
the latest generation has no sense of humor....ever notice this? Everything is offensive.
It's not offensive it's just awful.

Maybe a little gross. I have unfortunately known people who didn't want to use a windows laptop so bad they did not take college classes because that's the only computer their grandparents would give them. (Probably an excuse, not a real reason, but still...)
 
“Get a Mac”
I loved an unofficial one from the remote past where kids were at the lunch table talking about the reports they made with the computers their dads got them. A peer with a Mac joined them, then left, and his report was better looking. One boy said we've got crappy computers; another said 'we don't have crappy computers; we've got crappy dads.' The ad closed with 'Macintosh; the power to crush the other kids.'

They wouldn't dare air that. Funny thing is, is they could convince parents it was true, I don't think Foxconn or whoever could manufacture Macs fast enough to meet the demand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: artifex and winxmac
Imagine spending the money to fully produce an ad with a comedian and then pulling it after one day

I don’t like advertising in general so I’m not gonna weigh in on whether it was a bad ad or not

But I seriously miss the ads Apple used to run where they just let the product speak for themselves, it’s not like there was no flair or “bs” but I seriously appreciate when an ad doesn’t waste my time and goes “here’s why our thing is better”

Ironically this campaign looked like it was at least trying to operate on that principle, even if it was doing it in an obnoxious way
 
In many countries its forbidden to outright target children (17 y/o counts) with your ads, something that is hard to enforce unless the ad is explicitly clear about it, like this one. Maybe its pulled to figure out if they’re in the clear with geo-restrictions.
 
(...)
Into that setting, an ad. campaign comes out that appears geared to inspiring and aiding your kid to help Apple manipulate you into buying one of their computers. Turning our kid into one of their de facto unpaid salespeople.
(...)
^This is the real deal!
Get your potential customers as early as possible and encage them for life as ever paying foot soldiers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JohnWick1954
Here's why the ad doesn't work: It features a shady salesman. The implication is that you have to be shady to convince someone to buy a Mac (which makes no sense given that Apple arguably makes the best laptops, with the highest quality hardware and OS). The tone of the ad is off base relative to the real-world value proposition of a Mac.

The "presentation" is reminiscent of other shady sales pitches, like selling timeshares or any disreputable door-to-door business of the past (expensive vacuums, magazine subscriptions, etc).

I understand it's trying to be funny (and I also found the comedian to be funny), but the tone and connotation of the ad don't align with Apple's brand. Don Draper would not have greenlit this.
I was just going to say this. You should buy an apple because it is clearly the product to buy. Trying to ‘convince’ of this is Not The Right Move.
 
Get rid of the 22 year old “marketing PhD” employees creating these ads at Apple and get real marketing talent in there. Along with the software department. They think they’re creating snarky, funny stuff and it really is just lame. It’s not even cringe, it’s just lame and extremely uninteresting. It came off as begging and kind of pathetic, to be honest.
 
One again, Apple hiding an ingenious ad because of fear of public perception. It already happened with the iPad Pro M4 crush ad, one of my favorites ever. I know it's not the same when you're a gigantic company, but it's sad that they're not so brave with ads anymore.
Not public perception at all. Tech blogs and tech blog writers (not journalists), tech blog commentators, haters that live in the dark crevices of tech blogs. They’re the only ones crying cringe.

Decades ago parents were telling their school boards to buy real computers, computers they would use in real life jobs, not toys like Macs. My local school district board wouldn’t even accept a bid from Apple. The world has changed dramatically as Macs continue to make inroads into the enterprise and iPhones dominate with the younger generation.

My oldest was a PC guy until he entered the engineering college at U of I Champaign Urbana and found the engineering labs full of Macs running Mathematica. Suddenly they weren’t toys anymore.
 
I suspect that this was mainly a legal issue. Many countries prohibit advertising to minors for the purpose of encouraging them to ask their parents to buy things for them, aka pester power. YouTube is a worldwide platform.
It’s possible to restrict regional availability for videos on YouTube, so I don’t think that’s it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.